There are approximately five million people with February 29 birthdays. They’re known as leapers. (As distinct from lepers, but that’s a little bit too close for comfort!)

It used to be that leapers had issues with insurance companies and banks and other big organizations, who wouldn’t (or couldn’t) recognize February 29 as a legitimate birth date. They were forced to chose February 28 or March 1, instead.

Some websites still don’t accept February 29 as a real date.

And I couldn’t find out where this idea comes from, but it used to be that February 29 was when a woman could propose to a man, rather than waiting for him to get a clue.

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The Leap Year proposal thing was started by the Lil’ Abner hillbilly burlesque comic strip, creative brainchild of cartoonist Al Capp. It ran from 1934 to 1977, and one of the annual features of Lil’ Abner’s Sunday funnies was Sadie Hawkins Day, when the local women could at the very least invite a guy to the Sandie Hawkins Day Dance and even, if they were feeling very brave, propose.

I also think that Al Capp, along with fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, heavily influenced how women were and are depicted, although Frazetta glorified full-bodied women with real hips, as well as the usual tits and ass fantasy images. Capp claimed that he invented the miniskirt when he put one on Lil Abner’s lady love, Daisy Mae.